As the rep­res­ent­at­ive body for the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, which has the highest number of Holocaust survivors per-capita outside Israel, we are immensely dis­ap­poin­ted by the proposed Polish Property Legis­la­tion which would exclude the vast majority of Holocaust survivors from ever achieving the return of property seized during the Holocaust or receiving just com­pens­a­tion.
We endorse the press statement of the WJRO, and will continue to make rep­res­ent­a­tions to the Aus­trali­an and Polish gov­ern­ments on this issue.
The WJRO statement can be found here.

World Jewish Restitution Organization “Profoundly Disappointed” at Proposed Polish Property Legislation that would Exclude Vast Majority of Holocaust Survivors and Their Families

Urges Government to Ensure Fair and Just Law

October 20
Over seventy years after 90% of Polish Jewry was killed during the Holocaust, the Polish Gov­ern­ment today published proposed legis­la­tion that would address property con­fis­ca­tions. The draft legis­la­tion as proposed would exclude most Holocaust survivors and their families.
On behalf of the World Jewish Resti­tu­tion Organ­iz­a­tion (WJRO), Ambas­sad­or Ronald S. Lauder, Chairman, and Gideon Taylor, Chair of Oper­a­tions, made the following statement after the Polish Ministry of Justice released earlier today the text of planned legis­la­tion on con­fis­cated property:
“We are pro­foundly dis­ap­poin­ted that the Polish government’s proposal excludes the vast majority of Polish Holocaust survivors and their families. Polish Holocaust survivors and their families were an integral part of Polish life for centuries. Their property is often their last tangible con­nec­tion with the life they lived before the destruc­tion of the Holocaust. We strongly urge the Polish gov­ern­ment to ensure that the legis­la­tion, when intro­duced to the Par­lia­ment, will have eli­gib­il­ity criteria and a claims process that are fair and just to those who suffered and lost so much.”
According to the text published by the Ministry of Justice, the legis­la­tion would:

• Require that claimants currently be citizens of Poland today. In addition it would require that they have been residents in Poland at the time that their property was nation­al­ized by the Communist regime. These pro­vi­sions would exclude the vast majority of Holocaust survivors, and their families, who left Poland during the Holocaust or in its aftermath and now live outside Poland.
• Exclude heirs, other than spouses and first line heirs (i.e. children, grand­chil­dren). This unpre­ced­en­ted exception to existing Polish suc­ces­sion rules would dis­pro­por­tion­ately harm heirs of victims of the Holocaust. Because of the dev­ast­a­tion of the Holocaust, non-linear heirs, such as siblings or nieces and nephews, were often the only remaining heirs to Jewish prop­er­ties.
• Bar claims by foreign citizens if they were eligible for com­pens­a­tion under postwar bilateral treaties between their country and Poland – even if they did not file claims. Most survivors were not eligible to file claims under these treaties, but even those who were eligible often did not know to file claims as they sought to rebuild their lives after the Holocaust.
• Prevent people from filing claims for their property if owned through shares in a cor­por­a­tion.
• Establish a short one-year claim period after which property would be trans­ferred to the Polish Treasury.
• Eliminate the pos­sib­il­ity of return of the actual property, or of sub­sti­tute property and limit com­pens­a­tion to 20% of the value of the property in cash or vouchers, or 25% in gov­ern­ment bonds.

The proposed legis­la­tion, in Polish, can be found at the Ministry of Justice website www.ms.gov.pl/pl/informacje/news,9903,duza-ustawa-reprywatyzacyjna.html.
Since 1993, the WJRO has urged the Gov­ern­ment of Poland to address the issue of Holocaust- era resti­tu­tion in a com­pre­hens­ive manner. Roughly half of the Jews who perished in the Holocaust were Polish – approx­im­ately 3 million Polish Jews were killed in the Holocaust, 90% of the Polish Jewish pop­u­la­tion. Poland is the only major country in Europe that has not passed national legis­la­tion for the resti­tu­tion of property unjustly seized by the Nazis and/or nation­al­ized by the Communist regime.
Press contact:
Jamie Schaefer-Wilson
[email protected]
+1 (646) 644‑6320